Fraud, New Payment Trendsetters And Voice Dominate Week’s News

Top News

Plot Thickens as FBI Probes Alleged MyPayrollHR Fraud

News came at the end of the week that the FBI and the New York State Department of Labor are investigating allegations that MyPayrollHR, which abruptly shut down earlier in the month, diverted millions of dollars into its coffers that should have gone to employees.

PayPal Lowers Installment Credit Threshold to $30 – $99 Purchases

PayPal now offers consumers a range of promotional financing deals, including zero-interest installment loans to cover the price of their purchase.

What the Trendsetters Say About How We Will Pay Next Decade

In the payments ecosystem, we need look no further than the bridge millennial to see how the connected purchasing experience will evolve over the next decade. The group’s connected commerce behaviors are well-documented in the annual PYMNTS/Visa How We Will Pay 2019 study.

New Report: How Consumers Use Connected Devices to Shop and Pay

Perhaps most compelling of the newest findings — and a powerful bellwether for how the connected purchasing experience will evolve over the next decade — is the impact of voice on those experiences.

Startups, Instant Payments Could Put $280B in Global Payments Revenue at Risk for Banks

Financial institutions currently control the international payments sector — anticipated to reach $2 trillion globally by 2025 — but startups will continue to crowd the market, taking 15 percent of banks’ revenues.

Trackers and Reports

Construction Payments: Building the House With Virtual Cards

In today’s highly interconnected ecosystem, businesses rely on many other companies to keep their operations running smoothly. The timeliness of B2B payments raises the stakes for all parties involved, as a missed or delayed payment can ripple across the network.

Trending: Why BlueJeans Pays Local on a Global Commerce Stage

Subscription providers would be the first to state that payments need to move seamlessly and continuously across borders. Consumers don’t want to encounter any friction when it comes to recurring payments, whether that means merchants not accepting their preferred payment method or going through the hassle of currency conversion.

U.S. Bank: Machine Learning Is Banks’ Best Bet Against Fraud

Financial institutions worldwide are fending off fraudsters from all angles, with many FIs trying to prevent new attacks while still resolving the aftermath of others.

Fun, Cool and Otherwise Interesting

Money Can’t Buy Love, But Can a Subscription Make It Stick?

There are plenty of apps that will help a consumer find love, or at least a reasonable simulation of it for an evening or two. But making love last has, until recently, been a less explored opportunity to build a business.

Payday Lending Laws Drive Traffic to Pawn Shops

While short-term lending, in general, has a pretty rough reputation, the pawn loan is the most ill-regarded arena in an already unloved category of consumer lending.

Burger King Now Accepts Bitcoin

For some, bitcoin and cryptos — beyond a means of speculation — are a solution in search of a problem. However, among the more enthusiastic refrains from supporters: Cryptos will become ubiquitous as they scale into everyday retail environments.

A Year After Lyft’s Billionth Ride, The Industry Weathers Big Challenges

Optimism can be fleeting and fragile, especially when it comes to revenue, growth and profit. That’s one lesson to consider today in reading Lyft coverage from a year ago.